Chess tradition in Ströbeck began about 1000 years ago. Ströbeck is the only village where nearly everybody plays chess. Chess is a compulsory subject at school since 1823. The yearly chess festival at the end of May is an attraction not only for chess players. Chess is present in the village's life everywhere: chess school, public chess square, a restaurant called "The Chess Game", chess museum, living chess group.

The chess museum in Ströbeck, Germany's only public chess museum, was built to keep mementos of Ströbecks tradition and to show the special history of Ströbeck to the visitors.

The chess museum of Ströbeck was inaugurated at 24th of May 1991 and had about 1000 to 1.500 visitors a year since then. A lot of them come during the traditional chess tournament in May when about 200 chess players come to Ströbeck and lots of tourists join the festival and see the living chess group on the chess square.

Along with reshaping the museum in a new building we started more public relations for Ströbeck. With the arrangements around cultural villages in 2006 in Ströbeck, the reopened restaurant "Gasthaus zum Schachspiel", with a chess shop and the museum the municipality of Ströbeck hopes for more visitors in the next years.